Sen. Seliger on tuition: ‘If they want to charge more, they have to deliver more”

Some state lawmakers want the Legislature to retake control of public university tuition, a power ceded to governing boards in 2003. Others are OK with the current system.

State Sen. Kel Seliger, chairman of the Higher Education Committee, is aiming for a middle ground. His Senate Bill 778 is a work in progress, though, as he left it pending in committee this week to gather input and make tweaks.

The measure would allow schools to raise tuition at the rate of inflation, but to impose higher charges schools would first have to achieve at least five of nine performance targets for four- and six-year graduation rates and other metrics.

“If they want to charge more, they have to deliver more,” said Seliger, a Republican from Amarillo, adding that the bill could include caps on how high tuition could go.

The performance targets would be customized for each school to take note of their characteristics. For example, some schools have a much higher percentage of students who work full time — and therefore tend to take longer to earn degrees — than other schools.

“We can’t treat Sul Ross like Texas State-San Marcos or the University of Texas at Austin,” said Seliger, a Republican from Amarillo.

I asked the senator whether it’s fair to contend that his bill would essentially allow schools that perform well against the metrics to punish subsequent students with higher tuition.

“I think you could argue that, which means there might need to be some sort of trigger where they would reduce tuition if they fall off on some of the metrics,” Seliger said. “We really haven’t determined that, and I don’t know that that’s really essential for the purposes of this bill.”

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